West Ham are on a high after beating Brighton 1 – 0 at their new stadium. Brighton had been in imperious form in their new digs so it was an excellent result to turn them over although it was a very hard fought victory.

Sam Allardyce paid tribute to the defensive resilience of his West Ham United after a dogged display was enough to earn all three points.

Kevin Nolan’s solitary strike on 17 minutes settled the contest. West Ham though were missing the creativity of David Bentley, Matt Taylor and Henri Lansbury to injury and had to give away much in terms of possession. The likes of the recalled Mark Noble and Jack Collison to work overtime in midfield.

“It was an outstanding victory for us at a very difficult place to play,” Big Sam said. “They have a great crowd and atmosphere, so it is a great three points from us. Automatic promotion is generally determined on how many one-nil wins you can get and it is the same when you are trying to get in the higher end of the Premier League.

“You want to be fluent, score and be open like we have been in the previous games of course – we have scored four goals in four different games remember – but today we were a solid, hard-working unit of lads determined to try and bounce back from the disappointment at Southampton.”

Another good result, especially as we were missing some good players due to injury for this game. This is a game we would definitely have lost under previous managers in my opinion.

On another note it’s nice to see Nolan getting on the score sheet, he scored plenty for Newcastle in their promotion winning season so let’s hope he can do the same for us.

Sam Allardyce rued a solitary defensive lapse that cost West Ham dear at Southampton on this evening.

The Hammers are currently in second spot in The Championship, but they are now five points adrift of the Saints, who made it 17 straight home victories with their 1-0 triumph in front of a biggest-ever St. Mary’s crowd.

It came from a Jos Hooiveld header just before half-time, something Big Sam felt should have been avoided with his team’s aerial capabilities.

“It was disappointing to lose our unbeaten away record but even more disappointing to lose it off a set-play,” the manager said. “We didn’t really do anything in the first half although still had some chances. We conceded a soft goal from a situation we practice regularly. We are one of the biggest sides in the league but that didn’t stop us going one-nil down.

“We deserved something out of the game for our second-half performance. Unfortunately, our sharpshooting centre-forwards who were magnificent on Saturday didn’t have their shooting boots or the heading ability to score today. At least we came back and showed something of what we are really like in the second half. We took the game to them, were creative and created chances.”

Personally I think it was always going to be tough with the fortress Southampton have created at St. Mary’s, but to lose 1 – 0 to a bad error is slightly gutting! Oh well that’s football for you! Let’s hope we can win the return fixture next year! Come on you irons!

As you will no doubt have seen and read this week, the Government has decided to start a new process to determine the future of the Olympic Stadium after it became bogged down in legal wrangling.

WHUFC: Our unanimously supported proposal which earned us preferred bidder status back in February was for a multi-use, multi-sport stadium that provided a real home for football and athletics.

It would have been open in 2014/15, and it would have been a destination for national sport and certainly a fitting stage for the 2017 World Athletic Championships.

We will tender again with the same energy, vision and determination.

We welcome the positive words from the Sports Minister and the Mayor of London. It is great to see a collective determination for the Olympic Stadium to live up to the promises rightly made by Lord Coe and his team when the Games were won back in 2005.

If we are allowed, we will deliver the right legacy for the East End and the wider community, ensuring that the vibrant Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with its thousands of new jobs and homes is well served.

It’s a shame after all the back and forth that we are having to start all over. Lets hope Mr. Levy can keep his toys in his pram if we win it again and not use every means possible to keep us out of it! But it may be a good thing, I was never a fan of sitting 5 miles from the pitch so maybe our new bid can include retractable seating?!

Henri Lansbury lined up for England as they won 3-0 in Iceland today to make it two wins from two in UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying.

The Reykjavik contest was the second qualifier in the bid to reach the 2013 finals in Israel, with Lansbury having scored two and made two in the first, a 6-0 defeat of Azerbaijan last month. He also registered four days later in a 4-1 friendly win against the Israelis.

Arsenal winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was the hero for Stuart Pearce’s Young Lions this time, scoring all three goals. The England squad will now travel to Drammen to take on Norway on Monday night in their third qualifying match of the campaign.

Good to see him putting in some good performances for England U21’s. Lets hope that form transfers to West Ham as you can never have enough good midfielder’s!

West Ham United were back in training this Tuesday fresh from a spirited display at Crystal Palace when their poised passing performance should have earned more than the single point.

Speaking after the match, the Palace manager had said: “Two teams, playing two different ways; very much a physical powerful team in West Ham, knocking a lot of balls into your box, against the team that we had with the guile, the sharpness and the interchange to play and try to create chances.”

However, the Hammers had 366 passes in play compared to the home side’s 224. They completed nearly 80 per cent of these while Palace’s success rate was just 72 per cent. The visitors also carried the ball into the final third of the pitch on 93 occasions as opposed to the Eagles’ 68 times.

Speaking to whufc.com, Big Sam said: “We had more than 4,000 travelling fans at Selhurst Park. That is fantastic support again and they all saw another exciting team performance to go with the big wins we had at Watford and Nottingham Forest.

“We dominated the Palace game and outplayed the home side so it disappoints me to hear a young manager talking in the way that he did about my team. Just to get the facts straight, we were on top in terms of passing and possession and should have won the game with the chances we created.”

I am liking the statistics we are getting from WHUFC now! Shows the depth Sam Allardyce and his team go into to make sure they are fully prepared for every game, and of course analyse every performance. Feels a much more professional outfit than in the past.